Caution Ahead: Medical Trauma/Visceral Content
Fylole came home with antibiotics, and one very unsettled stomach. New sensations in hir rib cage and stomach as well as unrelenting vomiting. As soon as she arrived home at hir nest, hir body felt so off she decided to go to the hospital.
Dragging along a plastic, bright blue box from the toy bin shelf specifically for vomit collection; as well as dragging hirself, to the ER, was a drive I truly could not stomach.
Gotta give props to an amazing partner who was a knight in shimmering armor for all the support to keep me alive.
For over an hour I languished in the ER waiting room on the wrong side of the huge wooden doors. Where all the chairs have hard plastic handles which keep one from laying across them, mind you. Hostile furniture I think they call it.
“FYLOLLE!” the name was beckoned. Yay for a bed! Yay for Hydration. YA…….gestures disappointedly.
“The nurse will be with you soon.” Here’s your cut out corner of the ward. Nurse pulls shut the hanging curtain, Fylole standing dumbfounded:
2 more hardened hostile chairs
BP machine and cart
Some other Computer cart
2 hours. 2 long, hard hours. The guttural moans managed to catch enough attention for a fast cooling hot blanket. On the floor she did go with the precious blanket and blue vomit toy box. No one doing check ups. Non stop traffic around the cut out busy corner. 2 hours.
Larger than corner hell. Miniature Maker unknown, do you know?
“Hello! I’m your Nurse Practitioner. Are you ready to go home?”
What the actual fuck: did Fylole hallucinate that one?
“No, I haven’t even been seen!
Nurse Practitioner kindly administers anti nausea medicine and ice cold ginger ale.
Meanwhile a coughing family with sick youngin’s got a bed on the other side of the busy hall. Hostile chairs, wedged by the stations desk, behind their own hanging curtain.
“Why is there a person on the floor vomiting?”
Oh, out of the mouths of babes, such simple yet profound questions.
For this IS a rural Appalachia hospital afterall. In an area full of people who have forgotten their Appalachian roots.
Imagine a 300 year old cemetery positively and utterly forgotten about. I know it well
To these people, they are not hillbillies like those in the rising foothills of West Virginia from their Valley. No they have a massive valley to play in. Yet their denial of their roots doesn’t stop the Appalachian funding that only allows for one Emergency Room doctor, no matter what the shift hour maybe.
Well, the little pills didn’t work. They likely were washed away by bitter cold soda as soon as she could stomach it. such a quick second. Then back up it violently came with carbonation and a nice red hue to paint the blue vomit box purple.
“Mr. Nurse Practitioner, please, my insides still feel funny, can I have a bed?”
Oh, the bloody vomit was the key to a room in the ward. A plastic bed and an IV to finally get some hydration after five hours of vomiting.
The upgraded status didn’t stop the dry heaving. I’ve lost track of time at this point. Twilight within the ER. Time is always playful in twilight. A few hours, My Nurse Practitioner says “are you ready to go home yet?”
“Why no, Sir. Something isn’t feeling right in my stomach, and I don’t trust my pain response. Please hear me, I’m autistic. I slept through transition labor and awoke to my son crowning during my first child birth. I cannot trust my pain response. And neither should you.”
YAY FYLOLE!!!
Look at her advocate for herself. That took so many years to learn. And she’s plum exhausted to boot.
👁️ Blink Blink 👁️
“Aaaaahhh. Yes, well then. We will order you a CAT scan……’
A few more hours, the vomiting fading as she drifted in and out of sleep. At long last, the one and only Emergency Room Doctor, like a genie from a lamp, POOFED into existence.
Since she managed to keep her tummy calm while in his magnificent presence, She was able to finally discharge.
Fylole was ready for her bed, quietly snagging a few blue vomit bags to match hir box for the ride home and beyond.
At least the anti nausea script was a much welcomed boon for surviving the Rural Appalachian Hospital.